PayPal has added UncoverDC to its list of banned customers with today's de-platforming of the independent news outlet. PayPal's "Who We Are" page states its mission as one that "ensure[s] that everyone, regardless of background or economic standing, has access to affordable, convenient and secure products and services..."
The full PayPal mission statement is below:
Our mission is to democratize financial services to ensure that everyone, regardless of background or economic standing, has access to affordable, convenient and secure products and services to take control of their financial lives.
We believe access to affordable and convenient financial services should be a right for all rather than a privilege for the few. To achieve this, we are aligned across the company around one central vision: to make the movement and management of money as simple, secure and affordable as possible. As we democratize financial services for consumers, we can enable the hopes, dreams and ambitions of millions of people around the world.
PayPal determined that UncoverDC violated PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy per the screen capture of its notification below:
Deplatformed by PayPal
The prohibited activities are captured in the screenshot below. UncoverDC has not participated in any prohibited activities:
PayPal prohibited activities
Inclusion
Additionally, PayPal states on its mission page a policy of "inclusion," a policy that "respect[s] and value[s] uniqueness and diversity of thought." PayPal has committed itself to social justice, diversity and inclusion. PayPal seeks to "help small business owners achieve their dreams." UncoverDC is a small business very much dedicated to its dream of writing news people can trust.
It seems that UncoverDC's only "crime" has been to bring "unvarnished truth" to its readers with a "pledge to remain true to you, the public, and to always work with our three bedrock principles in mind: Truth. Integrity. Accountability," per its mission statement.
PayPal and ADL
"announced a new partnership initiative to fight extremism and hate through the financial industry and across at-risk communities. This is the latest effort by PayPal in combating racism, hate and extremism across its platforms and the industry...to address the urgent need to understand how extremist and hate movements throughout the U.S. are attempting to leverage financial platforms to fund criminal activity. The intelligence gathered through this research initiative will be shared broadly across the financial industry and with policymakers and law enforcement."
David Sacks, who founded PayPal in 1999, wrote a July 30 OpEd featured by Bari Weiss on Substack, condemning deplatforming and restricting the participation of "those it deems unworthy." The name of the OpEd: "Get Ready for the No-Buy List." It may be that UncoverDC is now joined the "unworthy." He writes:
The reclassification of political opponents as hate groups has been enabled by expansive redefinitions of terms like racism, segregation and white supremacy. When “segregation” can be used in The New York Times to describe a 70% Asian school like Stuyvesant; when the notion of color-blindness is considered racist by influential intellectuals like Ibram X. Kendi; and when “white supremacy” has been used to describe any support for any policy that can result in disparate outcomes, then a broad range of organizations can be lumped in with truly vile ones. Until now, these over-categorizations were largely a case of rhetorical hyperbole in academic debates. Thanks to Big Tech, they are now being operationalized.
UncoverDC has never and will never "leverage financial platforms to fund criminal activity." While UncoverDC now may well be on PayPal's "No Fly" list, its writers and its staff will continue to be dedicated to The Journalist's Creed.
Journalist's Creed
UncoverDC will seek alternate transaction platforms to support its business and its journalists. In the meantime, UncoverDC will continue to be an independent news platform, dedicated to its mission to write "factually correct" stories that "uncover the facts and keep our government, institutions, and representatives accountable."
